There is a word which refers specifically to large landscape wall painting (I'm thinking in terms of the Roman wall paintings in Campania) and for the life of me I can't remember it. All my searches for it come up with a blank, and I'm trying to work towards a deadline which I can't reach unless I can search for articles specific to this term! Anyone know what I'm talking about? I think it's a technical term, perhaps with the stem "mega" which seems to ring a bell, but apart from that my mind is a complete blank!

Wordnik (and, suspiciously, only Wordnik) has topia: "n. A fanciful style of mural decoration, generally consisting of landscapes of a very heterogeneous character, resembling those of the Chinese, much used in ancient Roman houses." But, even insofar as this is a real word, it refers not to the size, but the contents of the painting.
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MarthaªOct 3 '12 at 16:54

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Since you are thinking in terms of the Roman wall paintings in Campania and considering that you remember that this word starts with "mega-", I propose "megalography" for the following reasons.

Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born c. 80–70 BC, died after c. 15 BC) was a Roman writer, architect and engineer, active in the 1st century BC. He is best known as the author of the multi-volume work De Architectura ("On Architecture"). In De Architectura he called the style you are referring to "megalography".

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia (Wordnik) reads: megalography, n. A drawing of pictures to a large scale; but I'm not able to find this word in other dictionary.

@Mitch The Italians seem to know the word very well. Megalography seems to be the English translation. (A simple translator can confirm this; translators won't do this unless it is a word.)
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SoutaOct 3 '12 at 22:32

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@Souta. Italians may probably understand the word well enough, because of the prefix "megalo" from Greek to indicate "big" and the ending "graphy", which is to be found in so many words (geography, bibliography, cinematography, etc). However, this is the first time I've heard the term myself, either in English or in its supposed Italian version. And I don't think I am so little read, either.
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PaolaOct 3 '12 at 23:03

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+1 Interesting ... the only reference OneLook finds besides Wordnik is ArtLex Lexicon of Visual Art Terminology, reading: "megalography - A genre in which representations are intended to glorify or idealize excessively some event, person or thing." So perhaps this word has a different technical meaning in the English art world.
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MετάEdOct 4 '12 at 0:19